Ukrainian athletes do not take photos with Russian competitors, they refuse handshakes and insist that sport is not "outside politics." Vladyslav Heraskevych wore a helmet adorned with photographs of fallen Ukrainian athletes. Ukrainian Olympic athletes supported him and his decision, as did soldiers at the front, energy workers keeping the country alive despite constant Russian strikes, and other Ukrainians.
However, Olympic officials warned Vladyslav about neutrality rules and later disqualified him from the competition.
Ukrainians do not make these gestures to politicise sport, they do them to commemorate the memory of civilians who could've someday participated in the Olympics, but because of the Russian war, they never will.
These gestures are also about remembering that it's not only one person's war, but widely supported, tolerated or insufficiently challenged within Russian society.
For many in the world, it is more comfortable to believe that this is simply Putin's madness, a war imposed on an unwilling population held hostage by a dictator. It is a tempting storyline, it could've resembled a fantasy saga in which defeating the dark lord breaks the spell and frees the kingdom.
However, the reality Ukrainians face every day is not a work of fiction, it is a lived experience. The scale of violence, the endurance of the war and the visible support it receives in Russia make it impossible to believe that this is only Putin's war.
### Violence Was Not Accidental
From the first days of the full-scale invasion, reports of violence against civilians emerged across multiple regions of Ukraine: these were not isolated battlefield incidents but patterns documented in town after town Ukraine liberated.
Across occupied territories, systematic torture, unlawful detention, enforced disappearances and conflict-related sexual violence were documented. Survivors describe beatings, electric shocks, mock executions and sexual abuse used against civilians and prisoners of war.
This is not an accident, it's a pattern that undermines a comforting narrative: Vladimir Putin did not personally rape, torture or execute civilians. Thousands of individuals did and do, many document their actions on video or photo, tell their relatives about already committed violence or intentions to do it.
Even when carried out under orders, these acts required individual participation, as obedience does not absolve a person of responsibility.
A Russian soldier can refuse to abuse a detainee or to shoot a civilian, he can surrender rather than participate in a crime.
Ukrainians fight because they face an existential threat, surrender for Ukraine does not mean political inconvenience, but it means occupation, repression, deportation and violence.
The choice many Ukrainians made and make is not between war and peace, but between resistance and disappearance.
Support for the war in Russia is not confined to one social group; it extends beyond poorly informed conscripts from remote regions and state officials to public figures, cultural agents, educators and professional athletes, many of whom are well educated, internationally connected and fully aware of the world beyond Russia.
Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) maintains a public database listing individuals who sponsor or support Russia's war: some have openly supported the war or maintained professional ties with state institutions directly involved in it.
This complicates the narative of a "neutral competitor" or an apolitical cultural figure.
Ukraine recognises that not every individual publicly supports the aggression: there are Russians who oppose this war, who have protested, spoken out or left the country, despite the risks.
But their existence does not change the broader reality: the war is sustained not only by political leadership but, also, by visible segments of society that justify, normalise or remain silent about it. In that context, asking Ukrainians to treat sport and culture as detached from politics means asking them to ignore the environment in which this violence is enabled.
When you invite Russians back into sport and culture without consequences and refuse Ukrainians to remember, you are one handshake away from normalising the destruction of a country.
This is why Ukrainians do not reject rules and international norms, but reject double standards and feigned neutrality. We choose to show, commemorate and fight for justice and our sovereignty.
